A page flow is a collection, set or directory of Web application files that work together to implement a user interface (UI) feature. It allows a software developer to separate user interface code from navigational control and other business logic. User interface code can be placed where it belongs (e.g., in JSP files). Navigational control can be implemented easily in a page flow's single controller file, which is the nerve center of (a component of) a Web application. A page controller file is a special Java file that uses an annotation such as @Jpf Controller. Business logic can be implemented in the page controller file, or in Java controls that are called from controller files. For a non-limiting example, a page flow could implement a Web application's user registration wizard feature. The files of such a page flow could be arranged in an exemplary “userRegistration” directory shown in FIG. 1, which contains several *.jsp files 101, a control file 102. The *.jsp files are standard Java Server Pages (JSP) files that contain markup that describes the visual aspect of the user registration wizard. A Java control file contains annotated Java code that implements logic used by the user registration wizard. The *.jpf file contains annotated Java code that implements the navigation and state management logic of the user registration wizard and that makes calls to business logic.
A page flow explorer provides a consistent means of locating and managing all artifacts (components, actions, or files) related to a given page flow via graphical and code-level tools to simplify the development cycle, whether editing the controller files or the member pages. The tree view of the explorer can be presented as a page flow graph (tree) that consolidates functions previously dispersed among the project tree, structure pane, data palette, property sheet, design palette, controls, and action view. The source view of the explorer presents syntax completion, validation, and other programmer's aids reduce the amount of work required to get your application running. Many artifacts are represented by nodes in the page flow graph. While the explorer view of the page flow is useful for doing basic management of the page flow related artifacts, it lacks features necessary to support complete editing of the page flow.